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Trinity Music Dept. Heralds the Christmas Season with Handel’s Messiah

The Trinity Concert Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra performed the Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 1 at 2 p.m., under the direction of Dr. Paul Satre. They were joined by several other trained professionals for the performance, including soprano Beth Ann Swinson, mezzo soprano Colleen Brooks, tenor William Bennett, and bass Corey Crider. Swinson is currently an adjunct vocal professor at Trinity and Crider is a singer with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

“They professionals added a ton to the performance. Without them we couldn’t have done the performance as well as we did,” junior choir member Jasmine Slaughter said. “I hadn’t realized that the lyrics were all Scripture before this…that was definitely very powerful to sing pure Scripture and go through the whole story of Christ.”

The choir and orchestra had two dress rehearsals leading up to the performance, but did not do a full run-through until Saturday’s performance.

“It’s kind of like a marathon, you don’t run the full thing until the actual performance,” Slaughter said.

The Music Department performs Handel’s Messiah in full every four years and performs a Christmas Carols concert during the other Christmas seasons.